Zek got up, dusted the dirt from his trousers, and reholstered his canteen. He’d walked halfway back from the fairy pools, and now he felt capable of making the other half. The bandage on his shin itched; he’d have to get Ashdown to look at it. The shores of the river delta was probably not the best place to patch yourself up, even if you were bleeding heavily on your return from hell.
Still, plenty of reasons to be happy. Hell-silver, which was already causing a lot of fraught discussions, but it was better than no good options at all. Only one loss from the trip, and Zek assumed it wasn’t a permanent loss. Montgomery would be back, just maybe… in Spain or something. It might take a while to get back from Spain. Depends on how you traveled.
Have you ever seen an antimatter explosion?
If Zek ever saw Crow again, he’d be able to say he’d seen two. He’d evaporated demons, given the last rites to a walking corpse. He’d been a hero for a brief moment. There was a loud hiss of steam, and Zek looked up as the mercenary airship drifted lazily overhead, on its way back to Hanover. Zek smiled and then, slowly, the smile turned to a look of utter bewilderment at what the airship was towing.